Lose Yourself in the Art of the Louvre

No other museum immediately conjures up such a rich plethora of artwork and mental imagery as such contained in a sole word, Louvre. Le Louvre was originally built as a fortress in 1190, then a royal palace in 1546 under François I and finally a museum under the French Revolution in 1793. Divided into eight art collection wings, over 35,000 artworks & 500,000 objects in 652,000 square feet! Aside from the sculptures, paintings, drawings and more the architecture of the building alone is worthy of study.

Our students filed out of the metro car in the Palais-Royal Louvre line 1 stop and immediately were met with Egyptian statues encased in glass and other art. Upon ascending out of the metro on the street they can already see one of the long wings of the Louvre facing them. During the pre-visit debrief we ask them what are some of the artworks or things they’re excited about seeing during the visit. Sure enough the Mona Lisa is mentioned along with the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo. We share the names in French much to their surprise and interest about the vast difference between the Mona Lisa and La Joconde in French, so named after the subject, Lisa Gherardini, married name Giocondo. It is also a feminine pun by Da Vinci in French meaning “jovial.”

Once finished with the debrief we wait in the modest line in front of Ioeh Pei’s iconic glass pyramid entrance. We all excitedly descend below ground and then enter the Denon Wing. Here we begin with Greek and then Roman sculptures with students stopping in front of such awe-inducing works as Michelangelo’s Les Esclaves and the Vénus de Milo. Then they approach the Winged Victory of Samothrace (Victoire de Samothrace). Some occasionally stop in front of other statues reading the didactic panels, taking photos and even mimicking their poses in witty selfie mash-ups. One such Greek statue looks as if its even holding an anachronistic cellphone but is in fact a broken torch. 

Upon mounting a winding marble staircase the students are then instructed about the engaging 8 artwork scavenger hunt ahead of them. In groups they must locate 8 famous artworks in the Denon wing based on small puzzle-pieces of the larger works. They had 45 minutes to try to find all of them, many of which they had already seen in the earlier foray into the various galleries. Off they went excitedly weaving in and out of the crowds of tourists and local French art aficionados. The quickest & easiest find was Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple)  by Eugène Delacroix, known to some through the Viva La Vida Coldplay album cover, others through French textbooks, courses and art history classes. 

We had a clear winner amongst one of the groups but all in all they ended up all “winning” due to the rich cultural experience they had in the Louvre. After our post-activity debrief many students even stayed behind to explore unvisited wings such as the Egyptian art and/or Islamic art. One can only imagine a French version of Night at the Museum in the Louvre and how one can be so readily transfixed by the cultural & creative magic of such a place!